


Stations of the Sickle

by Anna_Wing



Series: Stations of the Sickle [1]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, War of Wrath
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 03:39:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13286211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anna_Wing/pseuds/Anna_Wing
Summary: The Teleri get some unwelcome news.





	1. The Next War

The Doomsman of the Valar was just, as well as Justice. He was equitable and fair and did not grudge His spouse Her due.

"You were right," He said without a pang. "Your warning was accurate."

Vaire nodded, accepting the acknowledgement that made "I told You so" redundant. When You know almost everything that has ever happened from the beginning of the universe and are aware of everything that is happening now, very little comes as a surprise. And She had been watching the Children almost from the moment of their coming. She did not claim Este or Lorien's insight into their psychology, but in this situation quantity was quality; She knew them very well indeed.

"Who has petitioned?"

"Caranthir son of Feanor, speaking on behalf of the House of Feanor and all its followers, including the Laiquendi of Ossiriand." She lifted Her hands, and showed Him the occasion, strung on the (metaphorical) threads twined around Her fingers.

Caranthir's shade, unlike many in the Halls, was sharply clear; cold though the fires of his spirit were, they burned fiercely. Finding himself in the Halls (rather than obliterated), he had immediately and without demur accepted both culpability for his crimes and the sentence for same. The fact that he neither professed nor felt any shred of remorse was, Vaire felt, for Nienna to deal with. The problem he presented at the moment, unfortunately, was of a different sort. The Silmaril had come West, the changing of the key long awaited through the shifting figures of the Song, and the Valar rode to war once more. 

_"My Lady, I perfectly accept that my brothers and I would not be eligible," he had said, having sought Her out as soon as the news came. "But neither the Vanyar nor my uncle have any knowledge of warfare, and while Finrod is competent he will need people who know what they are doing. Our people have centuries of experience, and we will gladly kill and die as many times as is necessary to bring the Enemy down. They are dead, their Doom fulfilled. Release them to life again, and let them fight with the Host of the Valar."_ He had paused and then added, _"Against Morgoth"._ Vaire could appreciate how tactful that actually was, for Caranthir. Death had improved his manners significantly, or perhaps given him enough freedom to let them show.

"He was even willing to promise that they would all come back to the Halls once Melkor is defeated." 

THe Lord and Lady of the Halls of Waiting shared disquiet at that. Namo said, "High King Fingolfin, High King Fingon and High Queen Beldoron(1) approached Me with an offer essentially identical. Perhaps they have a point. The fact that both factions take the same position is something to consider."

Nienna had remarked tartly that it was more likely that it showed that _all_ of the Noldor of Beleriand were suffering from similar degrees of dysfunction and post-traumatic stress disorder, rendering their judgment on this issue unreliable in the highest degree. Vaire had considerable sympathy with this point of view.

"Nonetheless," the Weaver said firmly, "This is not a decision that We can make Ourselves." She waited for Her spouse's agreement, and then added with the faintest tinge of regret, "Though I fear that Our colleagues will simply make Ingwe and Laurien(2) and poor Finarfin decide instead. "

 

(1)I accept Gil-galad as Fingon's son. Beldoron is his mother, a quasi-canonical OC. She died covering the retreat from Hithlum.  
(2)Another quasi-canonical OC, the Queen of the Vanyar and High Queen of All Elves.


	2. Going Down To The Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Teleri get some unwelcome news.

In the Day of the Trees it had been quite rare for the royal house of the Teleri to all be in Alqualonde together. There was the whole long, shadowy coastline of Valinor to explore and settle and surf, the wide, starlit waters of the vast Bay of Eldamar to sail and fish and sing to. For the more adventurous, there was the company of Osse and Uinen and all Their merry, restless crew, and sometimes, for the strongest of hearts, the Presence of the Lord of Waters Himself, holy and awful, and the solemn harmony of the Ulumuri, that was the ground that thundered behind all the music of the Sea-elves.

But after the Sack of Alqualonde, Olwe and Falmariel had called the surviving members of their clan home to serve their people's need and they had all come. Even the one they had no longer had the right to summon, being now, at least technically, the co-ruler of another people.

* * * * *

The messenger from Tirion sidled along the balcony railing and squawked loudly. Its brilliant plumage blazed red, blue, yellow and black in the Sunrise, and wide, bright wings flapped vigorously as the Lady Calapesse carefully unfastened the message tube from its scaly leg. Her brother Volwe reached over her arm and, just as carefully, lifted a bowl of chopped fruit within range of the powerful beak (which had already shaved several strips from the hardwood railing while the macaw waited for someone to both feed it and relieve it of its message).

Breakfast had been in the process of being laid for the King and Queen of the Teleri and their children, when a yard-high tropical bird had come flapping up to their balcony in the King's House of Alqualonde. The royal messenger-parrots of Tirion (and the property damage that tended to accompany them if they were not attended to at once) being well-known, Their Majesties had been summoned immediately.

"So what does it say, dear?" King Olwe enquired, having swallowed a mouthful of rice and grilled fish.

"Hmh," his eldest daughter said, unfolding the implausibly thin and flexible sheet of whatever the Noldor were using to write on these days. "It's for Earwen, from the usurper."

Her younger sister sighed. "She's not a usurper. She's my...deputy." The slow and terrible process of making some sort of peace between the traumatised Teleri and the equally traumatised remnant of the Noldor had been desperately painful, and was still incomplete. Witness her continued presence in Alqualonde, rather than with her husband, helping him deal with the sudden burden of rule that he had never wanted or expected to take up. Earwen, technically Queen of the Noldor, did not grudge him any help that he had managed to find.

She took the sheet of whatever from her sister and scanned the lines of elegant black script. Her parents and siblings waited expectantly. THe messenger macaw ate chunks of mango and papaya with messy enjoyment, talking gently and incomprehensibly to itself as it did so. Earwen sighed and began to read aloud.

_Laurefinwe Faniel(1), Queen-in-office of the Noldor, to her sister Earwen, Queen of the Noldor, Queen in Tirion, Princess of Alqualonde, fond greetings._

Faniel had not often been in Tirion, especially after relations between Feanaro and Nolofinwe became truly poisonous, but Arafinwe's sisters had all been welcoming and kind in their various ways. 

_Dear sister, I hope to find you well. I write to apprise you of a matter that has arisen, touching the preparations that you will be aware of. A more formal missive than this will come soon, from our cousins in Valmar, but Arafinwe and I felt that you were entitled to some warning beforehand._

Her family had stopped eating and was paying full focused attention, as much as if they were on shipboard, in chancy weather.

_At our instruction, our sister Nerdanel is overseeing the building of a port on the shore immediately east of Tirion. The High King and Queen will be asking the Teleri for the loan of ships, to transport people of the Vanyar and the Noldor to the Lonely Island. There it is purposed that they will establish such farms, plantations and workshops as will provide the supplies that will be needed to prosecute war in Middle-earth._

_I do not where or when the war will come, only that it is now inevitable. The Valar have told us that They await a sign, but of what nature it will be, it may be that even They do not know for certain. This is all the knowledge that I have to share for now, my sister. I believe that you will be able to infer the logical consequences of this information, particularly in respect of what else may be asked of the Teleri in this matter.  
I wish you and your kin very well, my sister._

_Laurefinwe Faniel, Queen-in-office of the Noldor_

The seal was the red-ink version of the Queen's Seal.

The post of Queen-in-office had been instituted by King Finwe, to deal with the late Queen Miriel's temporary (as everyone had thought then) sojourn in the Halls of Waiting. The Queen of the Noldor had her own duties, which needed doing even in her absence. Until the arrival of Queen Indis, Queen Miriel's deputy had been one of Finwe's female cousins. Since Earwen had refused to join him in TIrion, Arafinwe had revived it upon his acceptance as King by the Valar and the Noldorin remnant.

Earwen laid the sheet down, took a sip of tea, and began on the steamed rice-flour bun stuffed with meat and fruit waiting on her plate.

"Well that was nicely cryptic," Calapesse remarked, slicing a mango with savage delicacy. Her daughter Halatime had died on the quays in that dreadful darkness, barely adult, and had not yet returned into life. She had accepted the minimal reconciliation with Arafinwe that her parents had required, but not more than that. 

"Signs and portents, and invoking the Valar! What other 'logical consequences' might she be talking about, do you think? Our fleets, of course. Not just between this new port (and what about _that_ , I would like to know), but to get them to Middle-earth. What we refused to that monster we will now be asked to surrender to his brother. _Obviously._ "

"Indeed." Queen Falmariel poured herself another cup of green tea. "The shores of that region are inhabited by Noldor. Harvesters of the mangroves, mostly. Arafinwe is entitled to build anything he wants there. A port will do him no good without ships."

Her son Volwe said calmly, "More than that. If they," he did not specify which 'they' , "are planning to use the Lonely Isle as a, a giant supply cache, they will need ports there too. And the Lonely Isle is _ours."_

Earwen watched her kin cautiously. She had not repudiated Arafinwe, and she was still in law and fact, if not in actual operation Queen of the Noldor. The Kinslaying had changed all of her siblings. Calapesse had become ... a sea-lion, ready to kill for the pure joy of it. Volwe had retreated into himself like a conger-eel into its hole, a coiling stillness that would strike faster than the eye could see and then vanish, leaving nothing but blood in the water. Earwen tried not to think about the changes that it might have made in herself. 

The King of the Teleri ate some pineapple in thoughtful silence. HIs family waited. After a while he said, "Ulmo taught us shipbuilding. If we refuse the ships this time, he will teach the Noldor too." He looked at Earwen. She nodded. 

"It is Ingwe and Laurien(2) who will be making this request of us, if Faniel has it right, and I am sure that she does. And that _does_ mean the Valar." 

(1) I have decided that Finwe gave two of his daughters '-finwe' father-names as well as his sone. His name is unisex, so there was no reason not to. The other one is Calafinwe Findis. The third one was Irime Lalwende more or less in canon, so my excuse for that is that Indis got bored with the sequence and told him to choose something else. 

(2) Quasi-canonical wife of Ingwe and Queen of the Vanyar. The name is my invention. 


End file.
